As much as we may love revisiting horror classics like The Shining or Halloween, sometimes we just want something new. Luckily, there’s a whole host of fantastic works of horror from all across the globe waiting to be discovered. We’ve gone ahead and done the work for you by unearthing a collection of scary movies that haven’t quite attained the popularity of Hollywood’s heavy-hitters. From France to South Korea and beyond, here are nine international horror movies every film buff should know.

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9 Séance (2001)

     Kansai Telecasting Corporation

It’s fair to say that Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a master of Japanese horror. Though his films haven’t received as much international attention as Ringu or Ju-On: The Grudge, they are undeniably scary. Séance is one of his greatest ghost stories, although its title is misleading: don’t expect much communication with spirits here. In this film, they’re more interested in plain old haunting.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

8 The Wailing (2016)

     Fox International Productions

South Korea produced horror magic with The Wailing from 2016. As a genre film, it’s fairly hard to classify. Is it a zombie movie? A ghost story? An occult folklore thriller? In a sense, it’s all three and more. Clocking in at more than two and a half hours, The Wailing takes its time instilling dread in the audience, but the payoff is worth it. It can be thought of as a kind of horror epic, which is a genre we’d like to see more of.

7 Vampyr (1932)

     Vereinigte Star-Film GmbH

Yes, there are horror movies from the early 1930s that are worth your time today. Vampyr comes from the mind of Danish auteur Carl Theodor Dreyer (director of The Passion of Joan of Arc). It’s one of the earliest surrealist horror films ever made, and its influence can be felt in the work of directors like David Lynch and Guillermo del Toro (see more from the British Film Institute). With its dream-like atmosphere, striking visuals, and impressive special effects, Vampyr is a classic of international horror cinema.

6 Retribution (2006)

     Avex Entertainment

Another film from J-horror legend Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Retribution (as the title suggests) tells the story of a vengeful ghost clothed in bright red, and a criminal investigation into a series of bizarre murders. We won’t tell you how, but the ghost and the killings are intimately connected. At the very least, expect some serious scares while you piece it all together.

5 Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

     20th Century Fox 

For those eagerly awaiting Robert Eggers’s upcoming Nosferatu movie, you may want to check out Nosferatu the Vampyre, an earlier, lesser-known remake from German director Werner Herzog. Herzog takes the silent classic and makes it his own, retelling its iconic vampire story with his trademark experimental camerawork. The titular blood sucker is played by infamous German actor Klaus Kinski, who had a long working relationship with Herzog and was considered to be a menace to work with on set. Whatever his reputation, his performance is staggeringly good. It will be hard for Eggers’s lead actor to surpass Kinski.

4 Pulse (2001)

     Toho

The third Kiyoshi Kurosawa film on this list - he’s that good - is Pulse, a technological horror masterpiece with some of the most frightening scenes in the history of the genre. Pulse explores themes of isolation, alienation, and communication in the early internet age (via Gizmodo). It’s a prescient film that showcases the potentially harmful effects of trading in real-world connections for electronic ones.

3 Angst (1983)

     Les Films Jacques Leitienne

With our enduring cultural fascination with serial killers, it’s a wonder that Angst hasn’t achieved more popularity in the States. An Austrian film by documentary filmmaker Gerald Karl, Angst follows the perspective of “K,” a psychopathic murderer who embarks on a murderous journey just after being released from prison. Due to its brutality and nauseating camera movement, it can be a difficult film to watch. But horror fans will find in it a masterful study of the psychology of a serial killer.

2 Eyes Without a Face (1960)

     Lux Film

This may come as a surprise, but France lays claim to one of the best early body-horror films: Eyes Without a Face (not to be confused with the Billy Idol song of the same name). When a mad doctor’s daughter has her face disfigured in a car accident, he takes desperate measures to give her back her beauty - even if it means grafting another woman’s face onto her own. Yes, he’s that kind of mad doctor. Eyes Without a Face is a French horror gem that will make your skin crawl and your heart race.

1 Don’t Look Now (1973)

     Paramount Pictures

For our final entry, we turn to English director Nicholas Roeg, who put out one of the best horror films of the 1970s with Don’t Look Now. Set in Venice, this elusive horror-thriller follows a church restoration expert, John, who lost his daughter in an accident. John is plagued by visions of a figure wearing a red coat not unlike the one his daughter was wearing when she died. A film full of séances, premonitions, hallucinations, and death, Don’t Look Now would be considered a horror classic if it had reached a wider audience.